It helps to have seen the slammin' good "X-Men" film, based on tales
of the famed Marvel Comics superheroes, to completely luxuriate in
the sequel "X2: X-Men United." But "X2," reuniting director Bryan
Singer and most of the fine "X-Men" cast, is even better than its
predecessor  a sci-fi vision of our world in the near future,
when human mutation takes a quantum leap. Some men and women begin to
manifest super-powers. The mutants aligned with telepath Charles
Xavier (Patrick Stewart) at his private school for the "gifted" wish
to live in harmony with normal people. Alas, not all mutants or
regular folk agree with Xavier's utopian ideal. Master of magnetism
Magneto (Ian McKellen) and shape-shifter Mystique (Rebecca
Romijn-Stamos) scheme against good guys Xavier, Wolverine (Hugh
Jackman), Storm (Halle Berry), Rogue (Anna Paquin), Cyclops (James
Marsden), Jean Grey (Famke Janssen) and Nightcrawler (Alan Cumming)
.... until evil ex-Army man William Stryker (Brian Cox) threatens all
mutantkind. There are ecstatic eruptions of action, the acting is
crisp, and, despite a pageant of characters, the script expertly
juggles its main plotline, anti-bigotry theme and back stories.